Latest HIV/ AIDS Report

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) presented a rather startling report at a recent International AIDS Conference that showed around 30 teenagers aged 15 to 19 years were newly infected with HIV per hour in 2017, of these, two-thirds were girls. It further says that the epidemic’s spread among adolescent girls is being fuelled by early sex, including with older males, forced sex, powerlessness in negotiating around sex, poverty and lack of access to confidential counselling and testing services. Now South Africa has the largest HIV epidemic in the world as well as largest treatment programme. So how do we navigate around these contributing factors while trying to reduce the HIV numbers?To help us unpack the discussion for the day, we are joined by: • Dr Adrian Puren, is the Acting Executive Director at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases • Dr Nevilene Slingers is the Executive Manager at the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) • Lebo Ramafoko CEO of the Soul City Institute